OpenAI has announced it will stop its AI video-generating app, Sora, from creating videos featuring the likeness of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., following a request from his estate. The civil rights leader, assassinated in April 1968, was renowned for his advocacy of nonviolent resistance, civil disobedience, and powerful oratory.
Sora had been used to produce videos depicting Dr. King delivering the iconic “I Have a Dream” speech while making monkey noises. Another video showed him fighting his contemporary and fellow activist Malcolm X. OpenAI has acknowledged that such content amounts to “disrespectful depictions,” which is an understatement. As a result, the company has disabled users’ ability to generate videos with Dr. King’s likeness as part of strengthened guardrails for historical figures.
Dr. King is far from the only historical figure to be reanimated in tasteless ways. Videos exist showing JFK’s likeness making jokes about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, or Kobe Bryant’s likeness on a helicopter, alluding to the tragic 2020 crash that claimed his life along with his daughter and seven others. There are also clips of Malcolm X’s likeness making crude jokes and discussing bodily functions.
“It is deeply disrespectful and hurtful to see my father’s image used in such a cavalier and insensitive manner when he dedicated his life to truth,” Malcolm X’s daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, told the Washington Post.
Earlier this month, Zelda Williams, daughter of the late Robin Williams, also harshly criticized AI “tributes” to her father. While less overtly grim than the examples mentioned, she said:
“You’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line.”
On Variety’s Instagram story covering this controversy, Bernice A. King, Dr. King’s daughter, weighed in: “I concur concerning my father. Please stop.”
OpenAI’s approach to this clearly problematic issue has been, as elsewhere, to proceed regardless — ignoring concerns of copyright or, indeed, basic human decency. Only when objections arise do they consider requests for an opt-out option.
One can only wonder if OpenAI would offer such an opt-out in the face of a lawsuit filed by a recently deceased celebrity’s family after fake footage of their loved one’s fatal accident was generated by Sora.
In a statement regarding Dr. King, OpenAI surprisingly leaned heavily on free speech arguments about depicting historical figures:
“While there are strong free speech interests in depicting historical figures, OpenAI believes public figures and their families should ultimately have control over how their likeness is used,” the statement said. “Authorized representatives or estate owners can request that their likeness not be used in Sora cameos.”
How generous of them! OpenAI even expressed gratitude to the AI Ethics Council “for creating space for conversations like this,” which is perhaps more diplomatic than simply dismissing critics.
This entire situation raises important questions about who receives protection from “synthetic resurrection” and who does not. Generative AI expert Henry Ajder told the BBC:
“King’s estate rightfully raised this with OpenAI, but many deceased individuals don’t have well-known and well-resourced estates to represent them. Ultimately, I think we want to avoid a situation where, unless we’re very famous, society accepts that after we die there is a free-for-all over how we continue to be represented.”
Others have responded less diplomatically—and they might have a point.
In response to OpenAI’s statement on the “pause” regarding Dr. King, screenwriter and producer Alex Hirsch wrote:
“So your business model is to dig up celebrities’ corpses, and let users Weekend-At-Bernies their bodies around until their families beg you to stop? What the fuck happened to curing cancer?”
The controversy underscores just how challenging it is to balance technological innovation, respect for human dignity, and ethical use of AI-generated media—especially when dealing with the legacies of historical and cultural figures.
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/openai-stops-itself-from-generating-disrespectful-martin-luther-king-jr-deepfakes-but-this-is-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-who-gets-protection-from-synthetic-resurrection-and-who-doesnt/
